Coalition must pick up the gauntlet on energy

LARGE sums were wiped off the share values of energy companies yesterday as financial markets came to terms with Ed Miliband's plan to freeze gas and electricity prices if Labour wins the next election.

PUBLISHED: 05:00, Thu, Sep 26, 2013

The threat of 'Red Ed' will be hovering over the major energy suppliers [GETTY]

Miliband's price promise is bound to sound enticing for families struggling to make ends meet and on the brink of being dragged into fuel poverty.

And yet it is one of the most gimmicky and breathtakingly cynical policies of modern times. Because it was Miliband himself, when Energy and Climate Change Secretary, who set in train a process that led to rapidly rising bills by introducing expensive green subsidies and targets.

He even egged on the European Union to impose a high carbon price and obligations on suppliers to subsidise alternative energy sources. These have been major factors behind soaring household bills.

Fixing the price of domestic gas and electricity irrespective of what happens to global prices and production costs is extremely foolhardy and could easily lead to power cuts.

It is one of the most gimmicky and breathtakingly cynical policies of modern times

The challenge for the Government now is to come up with a more workable agreement with the energy companies to give consumers a fairer deal.

Ministers should press a hard bargain because with the threat of "Red Ed" hovering over them the major suppliers can surely be persuaded to offer customers significant concessions.

Once again the challenge for the Conservative Party is to make capitalism work for the hard-working majority in order to fend off socialist wreckers. In the energy market it hasn't been doing so for years.